


Prodigy

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 14:08:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7848073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Over the years, Jess managed to raise a little family on South Hoof.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prodigy

Jessica counted her blessings every day since leaving Dark Core. There were four of them, or seven if she counted her son, her grandson’s wife, and her great granddaughter. Which she did, because she loved getting to spend time with them and getting to see them grow up.

Jonas had done so well for himself. He’d grown up, met a wonderful woman on the mainland, and continued on her little family. He’d also spread magic, though he still didn’t know it. Jess would be happy if he never knew, just to make things less complicated. He could communicate with the ocean, which helped him with fishing. Fortunately, he wasn’t a siren, having only inherited his mother’s magic but not her form-changing abilities.

Erik never showed any magical ability, but then one day Jess heard him asking about a ticking sound. It was the great ticking of the universe, the clock of time. His mother Sigrid had forbidden Jess to speak to him, seeing her as a bad influence if not outright crazy, but she couldn’t just sit idly by and watch her grandson go insane from the ticking.

She waited for him outside his cottage at night. When he emerged shaking his head and pacing, Jess approached him with a gift.

“Grandma? I’m not allowed to talk to you,” said Erik, starting back inside.

“Wait,” said Jess. “Hear me out.”

“Alright,” said Erik, standing with his hand on the door handle.

“You can hear a ticking sound, right?” asked Jess.

“How did you know that?” asked Erik.

“I heard you,” said Jess. “But that sound… Erik, it’s the ticking of the universe. You can hear time itself moving from wherever you are. I don’t think you can travel through it but you might someday develop the ability to see it.”

“Mum’s right, you are crazy,” said Erik, pulling the door open. “Don’t speak to me ever again.”

“Erik,” Jess called, but he closed the door. Jess sighed and put the artefact, which looked like a simple wristwatch, on the front doorstep. And then she walked away.

The next time she saw Erik, he was wearing the watch. It was synced up with the ticking of the universe, so the ticking would always have a source and wouldn’t drive him mad.

Madison was a little treasure. Not only did she love her great grandfather and the horses, she also loved her great grandmother. And she was the most magical of her family by far, with the exception of her great grandmother.

“Grandma!” Madison called as she rode down to the hermit’s hut on the back of a Pegasus.

“I didn’t know that we had pegasi in the herd,” said Jess.

“We don’t,” said the hermit.

“I know, but I just touched it and it grew wings,” said Madison. She dismounted, and Jess saw a twinkle in her eyes.

“Are you sure you just touched it?” asked Jess.

“Well, maybe I wished that I had a Pegasus to ride,” said Madison. “And now I do!”

“Well, Louisa will be glad that you’re not borrowing Nightdust anymore, at least,” said the hermit. “Perhaps we can breed them together, though. Start a herd of pegasi.”

“And I can be the trainer of the foals,” said Madison, her voice filled with awe. “Oh, that’s a great idea!”

As Madison grew, so too did her powers. She didn’t go to Jorvik University, much to the disappointment of her parents, but instead chose to stay on the mainland to help her great grandparents raise the horses.

Jessica’s youngest, Cecilia (or Cece as she insisted on being called), had a very simple dream- she just wanted to be a mermaid princess.

“But princess, you’re a siren. Mermaids are our gentler cousins,” said Jess.

“Yeah but mermaid princess sounds prettier,” said Cece, swimming about in front of her mother. “I just want an underwater kingdom!”

“So ambitious,” Jess cooed. “Just like your mother.”

“Mum, how come you don’t have a kingdom?” asked Cece. “Aunty Kat said you used to.”

“I wanted to have my family, princess,” said Jess. “But you can be a mermaid princess if you want.” She kissed her youngest daughter on the forehead, seeing the sun picking out the blue hidden in her black tail.

“And you can teach me how to build it and rule,” said Cece. Jess chuckled.

“Of course I will, princess,” said Jess.

Belle’s dream, while not as childish, was still quite unrealistic. But Jess knew that she had to protect her daughter from those who would hurt her, even if it had to hurt her in the process.

“Why can’t I be the new lighthouse keeper, mum?” asked Belle, standing at the railing at the top of the lighthouse. “Sigrid is getting old and she’s not like us, so she’ll die. And then nobody will look after the lighthouse.”

“Erik will, Baby,” said Jess, putting an arm around her daughter.

“But he’s too distracted by the ticking,” said Belle. “A boat will crash because he’ll be too distracted to see it.”

“But, Baby, you’re a siren,” said Jess. “Our kind usually lures ships in to kill the sailors.”

“I won’t,” said Belle. “I promise I won’t, mum, I only eat fish like you and your sisters and my sisters.”

“Baby,” Jess cooed, seeing the tears in her dark eyes. “I know you won’t but the others will only see your species. Rumours will go around that a siren runs the South Hoof lighthouse, and everyone will avoid it.”

“But mum, I really want to do this,” said Belle. “I can be the opposite of what everyone expects.”

“Hmm… well, everyone said that someone like me couldn’t become a mother and have a family and lead a normal life. And yet here I am,” said Jess. “You’ll make a great lighthouse keeper, baby.”

“Thanks, mum,” said Belle, and hugged her. “You’re the only one who thinks so.”

“Oh, I’m sure your father thinks so too,” said Jess.

“Sigrid says that I’m stupid,” said Belle. “She said that a creature like me couldn’t possibly be trusted to run a lighthouse.”

“Between you and me, baby, Sigrid is a silly bitch,” said Jess, which made her daughter laugh. “I don’t know what my son sees in her.”

“Me neither,” said Belle. “She’s mean.”

“Well then, it’s a good thing that Erik is the only one who listens to her,” said Jess. “But I suppose that love is a strange thing. Just look at your aunt.”

“Which one?” asked Belle, her eyes twinkling with laughter this time instead of tears.

“Now you’re smiling again,” said Jess. “Come on, baby, want to go for a swim?”

“Yes,” said Belle. If the water was closer to the cliffs, she’d jump from there, but instead she followed her mother down the spiralling stairs inside the lighthouse and then down the road and onto the beach. Her tail was an inky black, looking almost like a certain other darkness as she swam past her mother. But Jess felt no malevolence, no evil, only the happiness of swimming with her daughter.

Amelia, Jessica’s eldest daughter, wasn’t as fond of the water as her sisters. Instead she feared it, and all because of an accident that had happened when she’d been young.

She’d been out swimming on her own, her mother being busy with her baby sister and her father out fishing, when she’d encountered the great grey predator of the deep. She’d floated in front of the shark for a moment, staring into the beady black eyes, when the mouth had opened, exposing sharp teeth.

Her scream had called her mother to her, and she’d cowered behind her while blood filled the water and her mother fought with the shark. She never forgot the pain, or the way her mother had cried. Even if she could forget, she still had the scars.

So instead, Amelia wanted to become the new mayor of Jarlaheim. Evelyn was actually dead this time, and the city was in need of a new mayor.

Amelia rode into the city, her Freisian stallion under her striking the cobblestones with sharp clacks. Everyone turned to look at her, in her dark blue vest. She did have a coat to wear over it, but it was a warm day. And besides, she wanted to show off the scar circling her elbow. It had grown with her, becoming larger, so that it looked for all the world like she had been attacked by some great beast and survived.

“Hello, gentlemen,” said Amelia, pulling up her horse in the park. She looked at the men gathered around the front of city hall. They all stared at her, watching as she dismounted and removed her helmet. She tucked a strand of her brown-streaked black hair behind her ear.

“What business do you have here, siren?” asked one of the men.

“Oh, the same as you, I suspect,” said Amelia with a shrug. “I aim to run this city.”

“Evelyn would turn over in her grave if she saw you,” said another man. “A siren, running the city.”

“Evelyn was quite fond of me, actually,” said Amelia. “And I have as much right to be here as you do.”

“Hmph. We will see what the people of this city have to say about that,” said another man.

“Fine by me,” said Amelia. “Let them vote. We will see who the city prefers.” She strode past them into city hall, and then back out again after handing in the necessary documents.

Back at home, Jess was clearly expecting to find a distraught daughter. But instead, she found her daughter sitting atop one of the red rocks jutting out from the peninsula and looking towards the city that she one day wanted to be mayor of.

“How did it go, angel?” asked Jess.

“Very well,” said Amelia. “I think I scared them.”

“Good girl,” said Jess, hugging her. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Well, you know I’m not scared of anything,” said Amelia. “I got that from you, mum.”

“I know,” said Jess. “You just have to get over your fear of sharks.”

“Aunty Kitty is still scared of sharks,” said Amelia.

“Aunty Kitty is scared of a lot of things,” said Jess.

“Well, there aren’t any sharks in city hall,” said Amelia.

“Oh, is that why you want to be mayor?” asked Jess.

“No, I really do want to be mayor,” said Amelia. “Evelyn loved that city, and I want to keep running it as well as she did. I don’t want another man to ruin it.”

“Jack is the vast exception to men,” said Jess. “But I do love that you’re taking after your mother. I’m very proud.”

“Thanks, mum,” said Amelia, and hugged her. She’d be lying if she said that her mother wasn’t part of the reason she was going for the job of mayor.

Jess had found this island by accident at first. Now, South Hoof was the home of not just her but her whole family. And she loved it.


End file.
